David West

Watch out league, The Dieng Train is about to run ya over like you’re Magic defenders! Our season chugs along through Thanksgiving (although with our jeans barely fitting), heading into December with 3 guys flirting with Oscar Robinson for tripdub averages, Brow looking redonk, and a multitude of other breakouts and disappointments, but I don’t want the Dieng Train to slip under the radar! Like a German train station, Gorgui Dieng remains regular, consistent, and otherwise just mundane, bringing true multicat performance after performance from a big (minus treys). After a slow-ish start, the Dieng Train put together a nice weekend with a rainbow 11/7/2/3/4 against the Suns, then 15/6/2/1/2 in a tough-matchup-for-a-big against the Warriors. And even though I said “minus treys”, he actually hit a triple in each of them! Shot 11-22 overall, committed only 2 combined TO, and after hitting only 6 treys last year, maybe this is a part of his game we’ll start to see expand. Before you Dieng Train detractors type “BORING!” in the comments, I know his per-36 is a smidge down from last year. That said, he’s played 36+ minutes in 4 of the past 5 games, and it’s all due to that beautiful, cuddly, Tibby Tibs treatment. Run your starters to death! But well, when one of your starters is a effin’ train, you ride that rail! Here’s what else went down over Thanksgiving weekend in fantasy basketball:

You’d think a team decimated by injuries would throw in the towel. Not the case with the Bulls. Already missing Jimmy Butler (left knee strain), Nikola Mirotic (appendicitis), and Joakim Noah (shoulder surgery), Derrick Rose was a last-minute scratch due to right hamstring tendinitis. The Bulls won anyways, their third straight victory.

Playing alongside a makeshift lineup, Pau Gasol played through the flu, just missing a triple-double with 10 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists. While it wasn’t Michael Jordan’s flu game, it was a still a pretty strong line.

Even with the Bulls’ starters ailing, there is value to be had on the roster. Under-owned guys like Taj Gibson (17/7/7), E’Twaun Moore (17 points and 3 rebounds), and Doug McDermott (14/5/2), can and should be relied upon down the stretch for both the Bulls and your fantasy teams. McBuckets also had the dunk of the night.

They won’t win you a championship on their own, but don’t overlook lesser named (and owned) guys during your playoff push.

ESPN picked a good one for their weekly Wednesday night NBA showcase. Stephen Curry vs. John Wall, two of the best point guards in the league. It was a very high scoring, up-tempo game, with the final score 134-121. And the stars did not disappoint.

Curry started out on fire, scoring 25 points in the first quarter and 36 in the first half. He cooled down a little bit, but still knocked down 11 of his 16 three point attempts, en route to 51 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals. Wow. Just like his Charlotte buddy Cam Newton, can they crown him MVP already?

John Wall was doing his best to cover Curry, but it’s a difficult job, even for a strong defender like Wall. Since he couldn’t stop him, Wall tried to match him offensively, finishing with 41 points, 10 assists, and 3 rebounds. He even knocked down all 3 of his three-point attempts, a facet of his game that is nowhere near the level of Curry. It was nice to watch two point guards with very different styles of game dominate the box score.

Oh, and lost in this point guard matchup was that Draymond Green got his league leading 10th triple-double with 12 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds. He even added 5 blocks as a point forward!

As a Wizards fan, I figured that the Warriors would win the game, but was happy to see the Wizards play the defending NBA champions close for stretches of the game. Now onto the other nightly notables:

Monday night’s heavyweight match between the two best teams in the league mostly disappointed. Sure, Stephen Curry and the Warriors were fun to watch, but the Spurs were mostly a no show, losing 120-90.

On Wednesday, the Spurs returned home to host the Rockets. They took all of their rage out on the self-destructing Rockets, destroying them 130-99. Do you think the Spurs were mad about losing by 30 on Monday night?

Kawhi Leonard (18 points) and Tony Parker (15 points, 7 assists) got in on the fun too, as Tim Duncan sat another game, while the Spurs await the MRI results on his knee. If Duncan misses substantial time, the Spurs will roll with a combo of Kyle Anderson (7/3/1), David West (4/2/2), and Boris Diaw (0/2/3), depending on matchups.

I’m living at home with my parents temporarily, while work is being done on my condo. I didn’t want to be bothered living there while they’re painting and installing new carpeting and flooring. As a result, I’m getting kicked off the television so that my mom can watch her shows. I missed the Sunday Night Football game for “Downton Abbey” and then had to turn off the Wizards/Cavs and Knicks/Heat games for “Law & Order.” I guess it’s a fair trade, since I’m getting so many home cooked meals and leftovers for lunch.

Fortunately SVU ended early enough for me to catch the Thunder’s dismantling of the Grizzlies. Kevin Durant returned from a toe injury to post 26 points and 17 rebounds, while Russell Westbrook continued his near triple-double stat lines with 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. You always worry with Durant’s foot being a problem last season, but it was nice to see KD back, after only missing one game.

It was all Thunder in this game, as the Grizzlies played down due to injuries. Mike Conley was out because of a sore left Achilles and Courtney Lee, who started for Conley, left early in the second half after injuring his hip. That left Mario Chalmers, who exploded for 23 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds, and 4 threes. It’s unclear how long Conley and Lee could be out, but Chalmers would become the starter by default. It’s not like the Grizzlies will give Vince Carter lots of minutes!

Early in the day on Wednesday, Major League Baseball announced that All-Star Todd Frazier was traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a seven-player trade. Wait, I thought this was a basketball blog! Well, one of those guys involved in the trade was Trayce Thompson. Not quite a Splash Brother, but the biological brother of the Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson and former NBA player, Mychel Thompson, who now plays in Italy.

As brothers, it’s pretty common to be competitive with each other. We may not be on as big of a stage as the Thompson brothers, but my older brother and I make almost everything a competition between each other, whether it’s games of one-on-one, 10-mile races, or Settlers of Catan.

While Trayce was gaining popularity as a new member of the Dodgers in California, Klay went off for 27 points in the 3rd on his way to a game high 43 points (15-22 FG, 8-13 3PT). It must be a happy time for the Thompson family!

Coming off their first loss of the season, the Warriors blew out the Suns by 25, leading by 40 after the 3rd quarter.

With the game in hand, Thompson, Draymond Green, and Stephen Curry weren’t even needed in the 4th quarter. That was enough minutes for Green to go for a triple double (16/11/10/5) and Curry to drop 25 points and 7 assists. So much for feeling sad about their first loss.

So as numerous comments have suggested over the years, I sometimes act as your fantasy therapist. “WHY ARE ALL MY GUYS HURT?!” But this morning, I’m using Razzball Hoops to therap-ize. You guys are going to help therap-ize me… Usually weekends are either “good”, “bad”, or “relaxing”. That’s 99% of weekends. Good = fun things happened, yay! Relaxing = you didn’t do much, and you’re recharged for another work week. Bad = things cut into the relaxing… But for me, it ran the gamut! I’ve mentioned a few times that the wife and I moved (yay!), we love the house (yay!), but ran into a bajillion little things and aren’t nearly as unpacked as we want (boo!) and missing a box that still hasn’t been found ($%&%!). Then we have to rush Saturday night to get to Charlotte to be ready to tailgate for the Panthers game. Tailgating was sick, but then I started to feel a little iffy during the game… At least we were true fans and didn’t leave early to beat traffic in the 2nd half of that bludgeoning! And I was able to snap the best picture I’ve ever seen of the Charlotte skyline:

There’s your pinnacle! Then I feel atrocious in a few hours of stop and go traffic, finally start feeling better, then get a tire blowout on the interstate and barely made it back last night… What a range of emotions! Anyway, long story short, I’m whiny, not feeling great, and the worst of all – didn’t watch as much hoops as I wanted to this weekend. #RealLifeProblems! So I apologize to the weekend commenters, getting to you guys now, and for a slightly shorter Monday Daily Notes that’s out later than usual. But we’ve got a shortened Thanksgiving week to preview anyway! Oh yeah, I guess I’ll stick with the usual daily notes format and tie this into fantasy – this article title could work for Nikola Jokic too! Went nuts on the Spurs last Wednesday for a breakout, but then played 18 starting minutes worth of feeling sick, getting a flat tire, and losing an important box when moving Friday against the Suns. Mike Malone even called out his guys! “Lunch will not be served today due to lack of hustle!” But then Jock Itch looked like a different player against the Warriors, going 11/11/2/2/1 in 27 minutes, while also helping us as a realtor and finding our house, helping the Panthers get to 10-0, and saving several stranded puppies in a well. He’s a 20 year old on a young team, he’s going to go through a lot of ups and downs, but I say he’s worth a look even in 12ers. If you don’t have anyone good to drop, I wouldn’t do anything rash though. He’s at 19% owned in Yahoo and snatched up in all my RCLs, but might be worth a look on your leagues’ wires. Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops action, plus The 7 Ahead for Week 5:

Another week of NBA is in the books. One thing we know so far this year is that Golden State Warriors are playing better then last year and it looks like they are heading for a finals rematch against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last week I kinda went on a little rant and the feedback I got was really positive. So keep the comments coming and questions coming. On Thursday we had some news come down from Maura Healey the Attorney General of Massachusetts. Unlike New York last week, Massachusetts wants to regulate the DFS industry and that is what the states should be doing. In there she says you need be 21 years old to play. When I heard this, I was like “you gotta be kidding me.” So you can defend your country, vote for the leader of this great nation, get married, raise a child, purchase state run lotto tickets, gamble at the horse tracks, and go down to your local convenience store to buy cigarettes but can’t play a $5 double up. Am I the only who thinks this is wrong? Then she wants to limit you to a $1,000 deposit a month unless you can prove you can prove you can sustain more of a loss. Oh really? Are they limiting the amount of money you can spend on their lottery each week? No they aren’t. There are some good things in there like not letting site employees/contractors play on the site, limit multi-entries, and getting rid of scripting. This should’ve been done a long time ago by the sites. Also, it says entries cannot be changed after the start of the contest. This seems to be end of the late swap feature on Draft Kings, which if you didn’t know is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. She goes on to say that she considers DFS gambling, but legal under Massachusetts state law. I don’t agree with that if you go by the true definition of gambling. You can read the whole story over at legalsportsreport.com. Ok, enough news let’s get on with the 6 evening games:

This is usually where I talk about how we did with the picks last week, but not this edition. I think it’s a good time to talk/rant about what’s going on in the industry, because 140 characters on Twitter isn’t long enough. As many of you know the Daily Fantasy Sports Industry is under fire. We recently had Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of New York say it’s illegal to play DFS in the state of New York. I don’t think it’s right for a person to have that much power in any state. To cut the head of the snake is just stupid in my opinion. New York has the most DFS players than any other state, with an estimated 900k. That’s a big hit for Draft Kings, Fan Duel (which is headquartered in New York) and any other site. Also, think of the tax money that the state of New York is losing out on. What states should be doing is protect the consumer by regulating DFS, not abolish it. The industry got too big too fast. Both of these companies are valued at a little over a billion dollars each. That’s just crazy how fast it happened. Then with Draft Kings and Fan Duel going on an all-out media blitz promoting millions of dollar in winnings, you’re going to attract a lot of unwanted attention. Now of course the politicians have their hands out wanting their cut of the pie. I’m not shocked at all because the political industry is probably the dirtiest and most corrupt industry we have. It’s been that way for the longest time and will continue to be that way. Many have asked, is season-long fantasy going to be affected? Probably not and here’s why: If there were season long companies worth a billion dollars and promoting million dollar winners, I am sure these scumbag politicians would go after those companies. But there isn’t. One final thing I would like to say is that I encourage everyone who enjoys and plays fantasy sports to contact their state rep and let them know how you feel. Also feel free to comment or ask any questions below.